Sunday, December 03, 2006

My Early Christmas Present!

This adorable kitty is Berlioz, my new cat!! He is my first cat, I've never owned a cat (my sisters are both horribly allergic), and until recently I thought of myself pretty much as a strictly dog kinda person. But, hubby helped win me over into appreciating cats, and after seeing my parents (and brother) adopt Max, and trying to figure out what I wanted for Christmas, the idea of adopting a cat grew and grew on me. I finally decided once and for all that a cat would, indeed, be my Christmas present, and we went to the shelter this past Friday.

We had looked online and seen several precious cats. Once we saw the cats in person at the shelter, it didn't take long for us notice Berlioz (then named Freddie.) What I have always loved about dogs is that they are so sweet and affectionate. Most cats I have interacted with are pretty snobby...but not Berlioz! As soon as Camille and I sat down, he came right to us and started rubbing up against us, and standing on his hind legs like he wanted us to pick him up. When he came up into our laps, he started rubbing his face on ours, which was just too cute! He wasn't too playful (I'm still a bit shy around cat teeth and claws!), or too hyper, or very loud...he was just perfect! We visited with several other kitties, but kept coming back to him. He's about a year old, is super friendly, and so, so sweet and tender. We put him on hold before leaving, and then came back the next day to pick him up. We couldn't wait to get him home!

Since Berlioz has been home, he has checked out the whole house, and he tends to follow us around and want to be with us. He loves to snuggle and give kisses. Last night he was gone for a little while and we couldn't figure out where he was! We looked and looked all over the house, and finally realized he had fallen into the Christmas tree box under the bed and gotten stuck, lol! He was so quiet the whole time that we had a hard time finding him.

Well, that's about all I have to say about Berlioz for now. I'm so happy to have this sweet cat with us! I'll be sure to share more about him in the future!

What a doll! He looks just like my Miko, only Miko has a little bit more black on his face. Does he have sweet little pink toes, too? :-)

I chose not to declaw mine, partly because of their age (a year is pretty old to declaw already, and mine were 1 1/2 and 2 when I adopted them) and partly because I had misgivings about it already. They claw the furniture a little, but I've found that aversion training with a spray bottle does very well.

Thanks guys! Yeah we definitely wouldn't declaw him. Right now he's not too bad about scratching on furniture, there's one chair he likes but we're using the spray bottle to teach him and he seems to be learning pretty quickly to scratch on his post and not the furniture.

Aw. He's a Tuxedo cat, right? How cute!I have a black and white cat named Oreo. He is a bi-color -- He has less black color than yours. He also likes to rub his face on mine. He also likes to rub the top of his head under my chin. Irresistable.

About Me

Stephanie

Austin, Texas, United States

Here's my life in a nutshell - I was raised in the Church of Christ, met a French Catholic guy online in my teens, tried to convert him to the Church of Christ, and-SURPRISE!-ended up converting myself to Catholicism. We ran off to France and got married, came back to the states, I got a degree in English, he got a degree in Computer Science, he got a job, and I am now happily living life as a Catholic housewife.